


Of Choreography and Clipboards

by saxgoddess25



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Banter, F/F, Fluff, Movies AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-03-14 13:51:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13591401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saxgoddess25/pseuds/saxgoddess25
Summary: Ficlet written for Day 1 of Swan Queen Week 10. The theme was "Behind the Scene. What happens when cameras aren’t rolling? In which Emma and Regina are involved in the Film Industry but are not necessarily actress. (i.e: writers, directors, dialect/stunts coach, animation designers etc)"Emma convinces Regina to go on a date. Banter ensues.





	Of Choreography and Clipboards

**Author's Note:**

> I may continue more on this later, because I'm enjoying the premise. We'll see how it goes.

Mills always looked adorable when she pushed those glasses up the bridge of her nose. Emma was so distracted that she almost dropped the prop sword she was using to go through the latest choreography with one of her stuntmen. “Pull it together, Swan,” she muttered, feeling foolish.

“What was that?”

“Sorry, David. My hand slipped a bit is all. Let’s go through that sequence one more time.”

“Sure.”

They ran through the movements again, but her concentration was shot. She was too aware that Regina Mills was about twenty yards away, working on something. Probably call sheets. She had a small army of PAs going to and fro, and somehow she kept the set running like a well-oiled machine. Emma didn’t know how she did it.

“I could use a break,” she said, pushing a few locks of hair that had escaped from her pony tail out of her eyes. “Why don’t we start back up after lunch?”

“Sounds good to me. One o’clock?”

“Yeah, see ya then.”

Stealing another glance over at Mills, Emma saw that she was still typing away on her pad, barely even looking up as the second AD came over to ask her a question. She’d work through lunch; Emma had watched her do it plenty of times. In fact, she thought she could count on her fingers the number of times Mills actually stopped for lunch in the year that they’d been working together. Their assistant director was a bitch on wheels when it came to a schedule, and she was every bit as tough on herself as she was everyone else.

A quick trip to craft services netted Emma a plate with two cheeseburgers, and cans of soda stuffed hastily into her pockets. That was the easy part. The hard part was calming the nerves that suddenly sprang up in her stomach like captive yellowjackets.

“Hey.”

Mills flinched a little. Emma had caught her deep in concentration on the screen in front of her. “Hey.” The response was neutral, but had just the hint of the impatient question in it. She might as well have said, “Why are you bothering me, Miss Swan?”

“We just broke for lunch. Thought you might be hungry.” Emma waved the paper plate in her direction, giving her what she hoped was an encouraging smile.

Regina rolled her eyes, probably thinking that she had PAs to do that for her, but she did put her tablet down to take the plate from her. “Yeah, I guess. Thanks.” She took the offered can of soda too, and continued speaking as she checked to see if her burger had the right condiments on it. It did. Emma was good with details, especially when she’d been watching someone as intently as she’d been watching Mills for the past few weeks. “How’s Nolan working out?”

“Good. Really good.” She unwrapped her burger and had a bite. “I already knew he was a pro. We worked together a bit on _Mission Impossible_.”

“Glad to hear it. We’re going to need him to reshoot that scene from yesterday. Gold wants some different angles on it.”

“Okay. No problem. I’ll let him know after lunch.”

Mills nodded as she started in on her burger, attention slipping back to her pad and tapping a few things into it. “Oh, that’s right.” She gave a long-suffering sigh before looking over at Emma again, “You’ll need to find my sister this afternoon. She’s having a brain fart about that choreography in scene 125. Again.”

Zelena Mills was the star of the show – a real prima donna – and Regina’s older half-sister. Most of the crew hated working with her, but somehow, she’d become the studio’s darling. Though she wouldn’t dare say it out loud, Emma suspected that she’d slept her way to the top. It certainly wasn’t because of her sparkling personality.

Considering that it was just the two of them within earshot at the moment, she let her guard down enough to whine, “Do I have to?”

That brought the hint of a smile to Regina’s lips. “I believe that is what I pay you for.”

Emma huffed. “Fine. But you’ll owe me.”

Regina raised her eyebrow. “I’ll owe you a favor for doing your job?”

“Not just any favor. You owe me a date. Tonight.”

“Miss Swan, I’m terribly busy.”

“That’s my price for working with Her Royal Pain in the Ass. Take it or find yourself another stunt coordinator.”

Their eyes met and held, Mills clearly annoyed about having terms dictated to her, but in the end, she caved. “Fine.”

Emma grinned like an idiot and decided she’d better leave before she made a complete fool of herself - or Mills changed her mind. “Great! I’ll be waiting when you finish for the night.”

“It’ll be late.”

“I know. See ya!”

She took her sandwich and her Coke and went off to find a quiet, out of the way spot where she could do a happy dance. After pumping her fist in the air and generally being insane for about sixty seconds, she plopped down to finish her lunch, still grinning like an idiot.

At one o’clock, she tracked down David and ran through the sword fight with him again until he probably could have done it in his sleep. Then she made a round of the set to make sure everything was still going safely, and finding that it was, went to see about Zelena. That was a lot less fun, but if one thing could be said about Emma Swan, she knew how to kick some ass when she needed to. It only took a couple of hours to get her whipped into shape, and Emma hoped she’d retain all of the moves long enough to get it in the can. They planned to shoot that scene the next day, so perhaps she would.

It was about eleven when Emma finally worked her way back toward where she’d last seen Mills. She wasn’t there, but Emma noticed that she wasn’t far off, going over the day’s shooting with Gold. He seemed pleased enough with the report, and Emma leaned against a scaffolding for a while, just watching Regina’s face.

 _That’s a face that should be on the other side of the camera,_ she thought, trying to ignore just how smitten with her she was. It wasn’t fair that Regina’s self-centered, brat of a sister got all the limelight.

Emma glanced at her watch. They weren’t going to be able to do what she wanted to do that evening if they didn’t get a move on. Slipping her phone out of her pocket, she typed out a quick text and hit send. A half a minute passed, then she watched as Mills slid her hand into her pocket. It emerged with her phone, and she flicked her thumb over the screen to unlock it. Her eyes raised from the screen, scanning her surroundings until she spotted her stunt coordinator. Emma gave her a little wave, and it wasn’t long before Mills was striding toward her.

“You have something you needed to discuss with me?”

“Yeah. We’re going to be late for our date.”

Mills rolled her eyes. “Seriously? You called me away from the director for that?”

“Regina,” Emma didn’t think she’d ever addressed her by her given name before, and she hoped she wouldn’t get taken to task for it, but if things were going to go like she hoped, she’d have to do break that ice some time, “I know you. You’ll have gotten everything nailed down two hours ago. Anything else can wait for the morning.”

“You’re pretty cocky, Miss Swan.” The tone was disapproval, but her eyes betrayed her. She was intrigued. _Score_.

“When you’re as good as I am, it’s hard not to be.” Emma winked. Mills just laughed. The laugh was music to Emma’s ears.

“Is that so?”

“Sure is.”

“Fine. Let me just tell Mary Margaret a few things, then we can go.”

Emma nodded her agreement, even though her impatience was growing by the moment. At last Regina was striding back toward her, slinging her handbag over her shoulder.

“Okay, I’m ready. Where are you taking me?”

“You’ll see.”

Emma led her to her yellow beetle, pretending she didn’t see the way Mills sneered at it. Hopefully she’d come around to its charms eventually, because Emma didn’t have any intention of giving it up as long as she could keep it running. That bug was her baby.

It was nearly midnight when they pulled up in front of an old movie theater with the title of a film spelled out on its giant marquee, framed by flashing white lights. Regina stared over at her. “We work on a film set all day, and you want to go see a movie as a date?” Regina looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “It’s a good thing you’re cute.”

“It’s not just any movie. It’s the Rocky Horror Picture Show! Don’t tell me you’re a…*gasp* a virgin.” Just then, Regina’s final words sank in, and before she could confirm or deny her RHPS virgin status, Emma said, “Wait. You think I’m cute?” She tried to play it cool, giving Regina a sly look, but inside she was giddy. It was hard not to start doing the car version of the happy dance. Somehow she managed not to.

“A figure of speech, Swan.”

“Nuh uh! You think I’m cuuuute. You want to date me,” she said in her best Sandra Bullock impersonation.

“You’re an idiot.” This time it was obvious that Mills was trying not to laugh.

“Mmhmm, and you’re a Rocky Horror virgin. Oh, I’m going to have so much fun with you tonight!”

“Need I remind you that I do have the power to fire you?”

“Not at all, Ms. Mills.” It wasn’t really a threat, she could tell. Emma gave her a wolfish grin. “Not at all.”


End file.
